Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus (Consul 53)

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Decimus Iunius Silanus Torquatus (around 10, † 64 ) was a Roman politician and consul of 53 who was accused in 64 by the Emperor Nero of preparing a coup d'état and who evaded his impending conviction by suicide. One reason for the indictment may have been that he was a direct descendant, namely great-great-great-grandson, of the first Roman emperor Augustus and was thus seen as a potential heir to the throne.

Origin and career

Decimus Iunius Silanus Torquatus was a son of Marcus Iunius Silanus Torquatus , the consul of 19, and Aemilia Lepida . He, his two brothers Marcus Iunius Silanus and Lucius Iunius Silanus as well as his sisters Iunia Silana and Iunia Calvina were maternal grandchildren of Julia the Younger and, through them, descended directly from Emperor Augustus .

In 53 AD, Silanus Torquatus was consul with Quintus Haterius Antoninus all year round. In the year of his consulate, the sixteen-year-old Emperor married Nero Octavia , the daughter of Emperor Claudius and former fiancée of his brother Lucius.

Other offices held by Torquatus emerge from a Greek-language inscription, of which Theodor Mommsen has shown that it relates to Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus and not to his younger brother Lucius. It can be deduced from it that he (probably as a young senator) held the office of Praefectus feriarum Latinarum causa and thus functioned as their nominal deputy during a period in which the Roman magistrates were celebrating the Latin festival . The text also shows that he was triumvir monetalis , i.e. mint master, and finally held the praetur under Emperor Claudius . The consulate in 53 may have represented the high point of his senatorial career ( cursus honorum ). As is not uncommon in the Roman upper class, Silanus Torquatus held several priesthoods in addition to his political activities; according to the inscription in question , he was probably the Flemish of the deified Caesar ( i.e. Divus Iulius ) as well as the deified Augustus and a fragmentary list of members of the Salii Palatini from the year 37, but at the latest from 40 members of this college of priests.

Charge and suicide

Course of events

In the summer of AD 64, Silanus Torquatus was indicted by Nero. According to the account of the ancient writer Cassius Dio , he was accused of excessive generosity: “He had squandered his fortune in a rather profligate manner, be it as a result of an innate tendency or with the intention of not appearing extremely rich. Nero deduced from this that Torquatus, since he lacked much, had to ask for property of others, and consequently had the fictitious accusation brought forward that he was also striving for rule. ” Tacitus supplements the allegations cited by Dio in his Annales . According to him, Silanus Torquatus was also accused of giving his slaves the same names as were customary in the imperial administrative apparatus ( ab epistulis , a libellis , a rationibus ). At the same time, however, Tacitus also points out that all of these justifications were merely pretexts. The real motivation of Nero was that he saw potential rivals in the still living descendants of the first Roman emperor. In fact, the two brothers of Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus had already died in 49 and 54 on accusations made by the Empress Agrippina the Younger , Nero's mother - Lucius had been driven to suicide by having him removed for alleged incest Senate pushed; Marcus had been poisoned.

Since his trusted freedmen had already been arrested, Silanus Torquatus realized the hopelessness of his situation soon after the charges against him were published and killed himself by opening his wrists on his arms. Tacitus reports further: "Nero's usual address followed, although he was guilty and rightly did not trust his defense, he would still have survived if he had waited for the leniency of his judge." With Decimus and his nephew Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus , who was murdered the following year on a similar pretext, the last male descendants of Augustus died. Tacitus reports that her alleged crimes were used as a reason for renaming the month of June to Germanicus because of the similarity with her family name .

Assessment in research

The reasons with which Nero had Silanus accused Torquatus are seen in ancient studies as the results of the ruler's changed understanding of rule. The emperor, who has ruled since 54, no longer presented himself as the first among equals like his predecessors , as the title Princeps suggested, but had the undisguised monarchical claim to be unchallenged at the top of society. Since the ruling charism was largely derived from the descent from the deified founder of the empire, the Augustus descendant Silanus Torquatus Nero had to appear as at least a potential rival. If the generosity of which Senator Cassius Dio and Tacitus were accused was not just a pretext to get rid of it, but also, to some extent, an actual conduct, that too would be a reason for Nero been to take action against Torquatus. In addition to the deified ancestors, Nero's wealth and generosity also represented a basis of his charisma and thus his legitimation of rule. Therefore, he tried to prevent wealthy nobles from being able to overtake him by their own charity and gifts of money.

On the other hand, no objective basis is given by research to the charge that Silanus Torquatus gave his servants titles that were customary among the imperial slaves. In fact, the corresponding designations were offices that were already absolutely common among the slaves of Roman senators in the times of the Republic . The emperors, who in formal legal terms were nothing more than senators with certain special rights, consequently also used the same names for their secretaries and other literate slaves. Of course , offices like that of a libellis at the imperial court were given a special, namely a concrete political meaning, but the corresponding posts continued to exist in the houses of simple senators. Even so, Nero was apparently forced to resort to these flimsy arguments to discredit Silanus Torquatus. Also the later and in retrospect unbelievable assertion of the emperor that he would have exercised grace against Silanus Torquatus in the event of an actual trial, despite the "proven guilt" of Silanus Torquatus, indicates that he continued to be somewhat dependent on public opinion and had to pay attention to this. Regardless of his monarchical claim, he therefore had to try to be perceived by the Roman population as a just and virtuous head of state.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 12:58.
  2. ^ Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum 369 = Inscriptiones Graecae 3,612.
  3. ^ Theodor Mommsen: Fragments of the Saliaric list of priests. In: Hermes . Volume 38, 1903, pp. 125–129, here p. 127, note 1 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Ernst Hohl : Iunius 182. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE). Volume X, 1, Stuttgart 1918, column 1104 f.
  5. ↑ Cassius Dio, Roman History 62,27,2.
  6. ^ Cassius Dio: Roman History. Volume 5: Epitoms of Books 61–80. Translated by Otto Veh . Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-538-03128-9 , p. 71.
  7. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 15,35,2.
  8. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 15,35,1.
  9. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 15,35,3.
  10. ↑ Cornelius Tacitus: Annals. Volume III. Latin and German. Introduced, translated and commented by Alfons Städele. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2011, ISBN 978-3-534-18153-7 , p. 167 f.
  11. ^ According to Gerhard Waldherr : Nero. A biography. Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2005, p. 100 died with Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus, the last descendant of Augustus. But see Ronald Syme : The Augustan Aristocracy. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1986, ISBN 0-19-814859-3 , p. 192.
  12. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 16,12,2.
  13. ↑ Vasily Rudich: Political Dissidence under Nero. The Price of Dissimulation . Routledge, London / New York 1993. ISBN 0-415-06951-3 , p. 78.
  14. ↑ Miriam Griffin : Nero. The End of a Dynasty. Routledge, New York 1984, ISBN 0-415-21464-5 , pp. 205 f.
  15. ↑ Miriam Griffin: Nero. The End of a Dynasty. Routledge, New York 1984, ISBN 0-415-21464-5 , p. 88.
  16. ^ PRC Weaver: Familia Caesaris. A social study of the emperor's freedmen and slaves. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1972, ISBN 0-521-08340-0 , pp. 262 f.
  17. ↑ Vasily Rudich: Political Dissidence under Nero. The Price of Dissimulation . Routledge, London / New York 1993. ISBN 0-415-06951-3 , p. 77.
  18. ↑ Vasily Rudich: Political Dissidence under Nero. The Price of Dissimulation . Routledge, London / New York 1993. ISBN 0-415-06951-3 , p. 78.
  19. ↑ Miriam Griffin: Nero. The End of a Dynasty. Routledge, New York 1984, ISBN 0-415-21464-5 , p. 164.
personal data
SURNAME Junius Silanus Torquatus, Decimus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Silanus Torquatus, Decimus Junius; Torquatus, Decimus junius Silanus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman politician, consul 53 AD
DATE OF BIRTH at 10
DATE OF DEATH 64